Contrary to Popular Belief
by 0WolfMoon0
Summary: When Sirius gets his hands on some "liquid luck," he decides to try and help his friends get lucky. However, James may have other plans. Written for round 7 of the QLFC, Keeper of the Kenmare Kestrels! (T for swearing)


Contrary to Popular Belief

"Lily Flower!" Sirius called down the hallway after a particularly eventful potions class. Lily whipped around with a smile as her friend ran like hell to catch up to her.

"Only you, Sirius Black, could think of a nickname as redundant as that. I almost prefer when you called me Ginge," Lily retorted, rolling her eyes, but her smile betrayed her amusement. Her dorm mates laughed, used to these kinds of displays by Gryffindor's model student and resident troublemaker.

Sirius ran a hand through his hair and winked at Lily's other friends before turning his attention to her comment. "I've been told I'm very good at regressing, if you'd prefer to be called Ginge," he smirked at her. In turn, she elbowed him in the chest.

"Idiot, who told you that?" Lily asked.

"Professor McGonagall on countless occasions," Peter piped in. Lily shook her head at the sudden appearance of the other three Marauders beside them. She groaned as she noticed the rest of her dorm mates ran off ahead to flirt with the passing Hufflepuff Quidditch captain. Lily was stuck.

 _Thank Merlin it's lunch hour,_ Lily thought to herself. As much as she liked (most of) the Marauders, putting up with them was a chore at times.

Sirius and Lily had a very close friendship, rivaled only by that of James and Sirius. During the famed Marauder falling out of fifth year, Lily stuck with Sirius and was determined that the boy not be left alone. In fact, she was the one who orchestrated the so called Return of the Marauders, when they put their feud behind them. Nobody knew what happened outside of the group of five Gryffindors.

Contrary to popular belief, she was friends with three quarters of the Marauders. James Potter may have rubbed her last nerve, but she put up with him because of his friends. At least this year he hadn't tried asking her out AGAIN. In fact, as she had recently noticed, he was acting almost civil toward her. As though he were trying to be her… friend…

Once the five reached the Great Hall, Lily expected them to go their separate ways. However, Sirius grabbed her arm and dragged her further down the table and away from the others. Lily rolled her eyes, expecting some sort of antic.

"What prank do you have planned this time, Sirius?" she questioned knowingly. He grinned at her.

"Actually, my dear Lily Flower, I was planning a prank and I'm going to need your assistance," Sirius told her. Lily scoffed at the idea.

"I don't prank, Paddy. You know this," she retorted. Sirius pouted, knowing he would eventually get his way with his puppy dog eyes. He was right. "Ugh, fine, just don't look at me with that damn face! What do you need?" Lily complied.

Sirius's face instantly brightened as his puppy eyes disappeared instantaneously. "Well, I'm trying to play a little prank on Jamesie, and I kind of need your Felix Felicis that Slughorn gave you to do it," he explained.

"Sirius, you can't really use liquid luck to play a prank on someone," Lily explained calmly, "In fact, using liquid luck defeats the purpose of playing a prank on Peter in the first place."

"That is where you lack in imagination. I never said Peter would be the one drinking it, I said that I needed it to play my prank," Sirius smirked at his friend. Lily scoffed.

"Why do I find it hard to believe that?" Lily retorted.

"Please, please, pretty please Lils! It's for a prank on James!" Sirius begged, pulling out his puppy dog face yet again. Lily slapped him halfheartedly.

"Fine, you oaf! But I'm only giving you enough for an hour of luck, so you'll just have to deal with that," she said, giving in and digging the small vial out from the bottom of her bag. Sirius smirked as she handed it to him, then planted a kiss right on her cheek. After that, she slapped him in earnest. She was only thankful that by this point in the year, her friendship with the shaggy haired playboy was old news to the Hogwarts gossip mill.

"You won't regret this, Lily Flower!" Sirius shouted happily as he practically skipped back to the Marauders, slipping the vial into his pant pocket.

"I better not," she grumbled, making her way back to her friends, who were debating which guy at Hogwarts had the best butt.

Back with the Marauders, Sirius took a seat beside Remus with a shit eating grin on his face. Peter and Remus returned the grin, while James looked at his friends confusedly.

"So… anything I should know about?" James asked cautiously. Sirius's grin widened as he turned his attention to his best friend.

"Nothing at all, Prongsie. Preparing a prank on ol' Snivillus and figured some liquid luck could come in handy to pull it off," Sirius replied. James raised an eyebrow, not quite believing Sirius on many counts.

"Okay, two questions before I believe you…" James said, still cautious.

"Ask away, my dear Prongsie," Sirius bantered. Remus rolled his eyes and Peter watched on enthralled.

"Firstly, how the bloody hell did you get Evans to relinquish Felix Felicis to you?" James asked.

"Simple, Prongs. She likes me, thinks I'm pranking you, AND I'm her _friend_ ," Sirius heartlessly rubbed in his friend's face. James seethed under the incredibly true statement. "Next question?" Sirius asked, shoving a forkful of mashed potato in his mouth.

"Secondly, if you're pranking Snivillus, why am I not in on the plan?" James questioned, confident that he had backed Sirius into a corner.

"All in good time, young padawon," Sirius replied with a smirk.

"I knew we never should have taken you to see that movie," Remus groaned from beside his friend.

"Well, I tried to warn you Muggle movies and Sirius were a bad combination," Peter mumbled.

"There is no try, only do," said Sirius, shoving another forkful of food in his mouth.

Peter slammed his forehead on the table while James rubbed his back sympathetically. The sloppy haired boy still did not trust his friend, but if it was something destructive or fun, James was sure Sirius would tell him.

Back in their dorm, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat huddled on Sirius's bed, discussing their newly obtained liquid luck. "What exactly do you plan on using this for, Padfoot?" asked Peter softly, though it was unnecessary as Remus had cast a silencing charm around them and James was passed out in his own bed. Sirius gave a grin.

"If we're lucky, this will end the feud between our favourite ginger and the dashing lad in the bed next to mine," Sirius said with a triumphant grin, dangling the small vial of Felix Felicis in front of the other boys.

"I'm seeing a flaw in your plan, Sirius," Remus stated matter-of-factly. Sirius and Peter groaned.

"Don't you always? Why not just let us go and see what happens?" complained Peter. Remus rolled his eyes.

"I'm assuming you wish to use it tomorrow and your biggest flaw, Padfoot, is that Lily does not like James in the slightest. We all know this, you especially," Remus pointed out. However, Sirius's grin never faltered.

"You do have a point, Moony… Lily and James have never gotten along," Peter said tentatively. Sirius leaned toward the center of their impromptu circle on his bed with a grin.

"Faith, trust, and pixie dust, amigos," Sirius said with a smile. Remus grabbed the boy's pillow and hit him in the face with it.

"Enough with the cryptic and annoying Muggle movie references!" Remus whisper-shouted, not wanting to risk the spell wearing off due to overuse.

"Oi! Quit hitting me and I'll tell you, alright!" Sirius shouted. Remus let up on his relentless hitting as Sirius actually gave his explanation. He explained, "Contrary to popular belief, our lovely Lily Flower does not think James is a despicable human being. Through much cajoling and his own efforts to not harass, she has come to find him a decent human being. This little potion is just the little push they need to get them to the point where they're giving me beautiful god-babies!"

Peter grinned and nodded at Sirius's explanation, but Remus face palmed. _I'm friends with a moron,_ he thought.

Breakfast the next morning was a risky situation. Peter distracted James while Sirius swapped his own goblet, into which he had poured the liquid luck, with James's goblet. Overall, it went smoothly. Sirius could only hope that it worked. The only lapse in his plan… Once James had downed his goblet, Remus pointed out that Lily was nowhere to be seen.

It hardly took any time for the Felix Felicis to kick in. At least, that was how it appeared to the three non-drugged Marauders when James stood up and proclaimed he was going to go see Madame Pomfrey. His reasoning was that he hadn't seen "old Pommy" in far too long. As he waltzed out of the Great Hall, Sirius turned to his partners in crime.

"Five Galleons says that he asks her out by the end of the day, and she accepts," Sirius wagered. Remus scoffed at him.

"I'll wager five Galleons that the two of them are only FRIENDS by the end of the day. No more, no less," Remus countered. Contrary to popular belief, Remus almost always got in on Sirius's betting pools.

"Petey, what say you?" Sirius asked, pulling out a small notebook and quill to take note of the wagers.

"Um… two Galleons that James gets her alone in a broom closet?" Peter said. Remus and Sirius sighed. Peter was ever a hopeless romantic…

"Whatever you say, Wormy," Sirius said jovially.

When James reached the hospital wing, the first thing that he heard was yelling. The voices were ones he was well acquainted with. Lily Evans and Severus Snape. He didn't catch any of their shouted conversation, as Snape was shoved out of the hospital wing by an irate Madame Pomfrey. James shrugged and waltzed on in.

"Lousy students disturbing my patients," grumbled Madame Pomfrey as she bustled back to check on Lily. The girl was sitting on one of the beds with her ankle elevated and a flushed red face.

"What happened to you, Evans?" James asked plainly. Lily snapped to look at him and he noticed slight tear tracks running down her cheeks.

"What do you care, Potter?" Lily replied, quickly wiping her face and attempting to sit up. Her attempt failed as she grimaced at the pain going through her ankle. James shrugged in reply.

"You're a mate of my mates, therefore we're almost sort of mates. I came up here to annoy our dearest Madame Pomfrey, but as almost friends I am obligated to ensure you're alright. Now I believe I asked what happened to you," James said plainly. Lily blushed at the truth in his statement.

"Sev- I mean, Snape and his friends shoved my down a flight of stairs while it was moving. My ankle got hit and almost crushed between the destination platform and the bottom step, hence the fact that I'm here," Lily told James grudgingly. Tentatively, James sat down on the edge of her bed near her feet, having drawn closer during her explanation.

"Slytherins don't know when to stop, do they?" James asked plainly. Lily scoffed in agreement.

"Unfortunately, most of the older ones and some of the younger ones are buying into You-Know-Who's ideals. Wannabe Death Eaters, Snape and the lot of them. It's disgusting," Lily ranted. James smirked at her.

"Aren't you the one who is always telling ME not to judge a person based on their House?" James quipped. Lily hit his arm halfheartedly, giving a small grin at the true statement.

"Well, I've met enough asses from Slytherin to allow myself to pass judgement. They really don't fight the stereotype well," Lily mused. James grinned.

"Evans finally admitted that Snivillus is an ass! Victory for the Marauders, baby!" James shouted, throwing a fist in the air. Lily laughed out loud, shaking her head at his idiocy.

"POTTER!" came a yell from Madame Pomfrey as she entered the wing from her supply closet. James gulped before winking at the ginger and bolting up from the bed.

"Pommy! Poppy darling! It's been too long!" James quipped. Lily rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Out! You're always bugging my patients!" Madame Pomfrey said, shooing James out of the hospital wing before slamming the door and returning to fix Lily's ankle.

Outside in the corridor, James slipped on his invisibility cloak and slid back inside. He'd bug Pomfrey just a little more in a bit.

"You didn't have to shoo him out, Madame Pomfrey," James heard Lily say.

"After five years of torment, I never thought I would hear you say that about Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans," Madame Pomfrey said, surprised. Lily shrugged. James stood shocked still under his cloak in the doorway.

"I suppose he isn't that bad for a mate of my mates," Lily mumbled. Madame Pomfrey raised an eyebrow at the girl before finishing her mending of the ankle.

"Well my dear, I'm glad your little feud is behind you. Now, this will be all fixed in about ten minutes. You may go after that amount of time," Madame Pomfrey told her patient before bustling off to her office.

The disappearance of Pomfrey jolted James back to reality. He flung off his cloak and sauntered into the room.

"Not bad for a mate of a mate, huh?" James teased. Lily jumped in her seat.

"Potter, what are you doing back in here and how did you hear that?" Lily questioned, embarrassed. James grinned.

"I came back to tease Pommy some more, but stopped when I overheard something quite interesting," James said slyly.

"Shut up, Potter…" Lily mumbled.

"Call me James," James replied with a genuine smile, not a smirk or a grin, but a split your face open, toothy smile. When Lily saw it, her heart inadvertently skipped a beat.

"Fine, James… In that case, call me Lily," she said quietly, watching as his smile grew wider. She raised her eyebrows as he extended a hand for her to shake.

"Mates?" he asked. Looking up at him, Lily smiled and shook the extended hand.

"Mates," she confirmed.

Madame Pomfrey reentered the room at this point and, seeing that James had entered the room again, she assigned him detention, right then that moment. Lily laughed and left the hospital wing, where James spent the rest of his morning sorting through Pomfrey's medicine cabinet. His luck had run out.


End file.
